Tziporah Malkah opens up about losing $2 million after falling for 'conman' rabbi

Tziporah Malkah's luck in love hasn't been the best, from her failed engagement to billionaire James Packer to a rabbi who took $2 million of her life savings.

The former model, who used to be known as Kate Fischer before she embraced Judaism, has shared how she was ripped off by an American rabbi – which almost left her homeless.

The 43-year-old didn't flinch from the sad details during her "Jungle Radio" segment with radio host Steve Price on I'm A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!

Tziporah, who had $2 million from her settlement with James, moved to the US and started dating a Jewish man in LA.

As she became more interested in her faith (her mother, NSW politician Pru Goward, is Jewish), the man referred her to a rabbi whom she fell in love with.

"The rabbi turns out to be a conman," she said. "I got swept away a little bit with him. He was incredibly charismatic. He was very convincing."

Tziporah said that she gave him her "nest egg" because he said "he could invest it better than me and I believed him".

"I was stupid and I was in love. And I thought maybe the son of a billionaire might lie to me, but why would a rabbi lie to me?" she said.

Tziporah guessed that the rabbi had spent the money "on his wife and kids", whom he kept secret from her. But she still doesn't know exactly what he did with it.

So why didn't she report him to the police? Tziporah explained that she couldn't because "I'd willingly done it".

"Because he kept saying, 'Yeah, it's coming, it's coming, it's coming'. And by the time it hadn't come, and I was down to my last few thousand bucks, I realised I had to get out of there," she added. "Because he had $400 million and I had nothing. And so I couldn't fight him. I couldn't live not paying rent on my apartment."

Tziporah said she was "facing homelessness" and thought she'd have to "sleep under a bush".

She came home to Australia and sought help from the Salvation Army.

"I said 'help me, I'm going to be homeless'. So they got me in touch with women's housing, and I moved into one of their houses, and I found a job down the road and started working," she said.

Eventually, Tziporah was able to afford a lease on an apartment and get her life back on track. Before going on I'm A Celebrity, she was working for an aged care facility, but came back into the spotlight after paparazzi sold photos of her and her "new life".

"You know, I'm kind of happy in the place I'm in right now," she concluded. "Sometimes the worst thing that can happen…[it] turns out that if I hadn't have done that then, this wouldn't have happened."

James Packer and Kate Fischer in 1998 before their split. Image: AFPForum.

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